Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Purple Matters

Jonathan Narcisse started off coming after almost everyone. Narcisse, the controversial former Des Moines school board member, is traveling the state with Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Rants. It's a conversation, debate, whatever he prefers to call it. On our show, Narcisse ripped on the Republican candidates and the Democratic Governor Chet Culver. Narcisse is a registered Democrat, but he said he doesn't want to "be put in a box". He also danced around when I asked his real motive for doing this.

Are the peace lovers on the left getting a little miffed at President Obama these days? They say the Prez spent a lot of time promising Iowans he would change foreign policy. But they're not happy he's thinking about sending more troops to Afghanistan. Kathleen McQuillan of the American Friends Service Committee talked about why she and others are getting so impatient with the Prez.

Plus, when is it o.k. for politicians to go shirtless? Or, perhaps, better stated, when is it o.k. for the media to show shirtless pols? And was Newsweek wrong in trying to "sex up" Sarah Palin with its cover picture? Iowa State University Professor Michael Bugela, journalism and media ethics expert, said, it depends. Do you want to see political skin?